As famously said in “The Wizard of Oz”, “there’s no place like home”, but sometimes you need a change of pace from everyday life. The foreign exchange program allows students to live in another country for up to an entire scholastic year. A select amount of students from other countries got the chance to live in America, and experience America at Cy Creek High School. These students get to live with a host family, as they explore life as an American student.

Makenzie Slawinski from Germany participated in the foreign exchange program her sophomore year for the fall semester, but decided to come back for her junior year, this time for the full year.

“Basically I’ve always wanted to come to America, and one year my school offered the chance for me to go,” Makenzie said. “This year, they offered for me to come again, but this time for a full year, so I thought I would like to go the whole school year instead of one semester.”

Anton Pettersen, a senior, has noticed a lot of differences here in the United States from his hometown in Norway. 

“I think the school here is very strict, it’s a lot less strict at home,” Pettersen said.“Everything is way bigger here in the United States, especially in Texas, you almost have to see it to believe it.”

Chara Gambelli from Italy joined the foreign exchange program this year, and has been enjoying every second of her time in America. 

“I love the school, because it’s a friendly program, and the teachers are really nice here, the school has more spirit,” Gambelli said. “Though I don’t like the food here because it’s not fresh.”

Ignacio Perez, known affectionately by friends as Nacho, came to the United States from Spain looking for a new experience, and a chance to understand life in another country.

“It’s a big change from Spain,” Perez said. “It’s a new experience than the everyday life in Spain, everything here is so different.”

With our school growing in diversity with the inclusion of students from other countries. Creek is slowly becoming a place where people from all kinds of backgrounds can interact with each other.